Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: non clear seam tape
By:Dean Trexel
Date: 4/21/1999, 8:58 pm
In Response To: non clear seam tape (Rich Ross)

I vote for sanding down as much as you can and attempt it again with thinner tape and a lot of squeege-ing in the process. I recently finished a stitch-n-glue boat, and everywhere that I have double layers of epoxy (deck-to-hull, keel, and stem/stern overlaps) the tape is cloudy. This was barely visible in my apartment living room where I built it, but once I got the finished boat into direct sunlight, it was too visible and I was very disappointed. Given that my boat was quicker to build, I can say 'oh, well -- now I know better for my next boat...,' but since you built a stripper, it would be a shame to get done with it and not be 99% happy with it.

Happy sanding!^)

> Hello, I'm in the process of finishing up my first Guillemot and have run
> into a problem. The 2" (8 oz.) seam tape I used to join the hull and
> deck, isn't uniformly clear. Last night I ground it down and put a fill
> coat on it, but the weave is still very noticable. Is it just the weight
> of the tape? The rest of the boat looks great! At this piont I can only
> see a couple of options. Grind the tape off and use 6 oz cloth the cover
> the seam or mix up some graphite/epoxy and cover the hull from above the
> shear line down. ( not what I really want to do) Thanks in advance. Any
> help would be greatly appreciated. Rich Ross

Messages In This Thread

non clear seam tape
Rich Ross -- 4/20/1999, 11:48 am
Re:Why tape? (was non clear seam tape)
Larry C. -- 4/21/1999, 9:16 pm
Re:Why tape?
Pete Rudie -- 4/22/1999, 12:33 am
Re: non clear seam tape
Dean Trexel -- 4/21/1999, 8:58 pm
Re: non clear seam tape
Jay Babina -- 4/20/1999, 1:59 pm